Tag Archives: Charles Flanagan

On May 28, the director of the state Department of Child Safety acknowledged that backlogs are growing again at the agency. Greg McKay told a legislative oversight committee that the number of hotline reports the agency receives each month is greater than the number of reports the staff can close.

Gov. Doug Ducey attributed his lack of information about a change in policy at the Department of Child Safety, which in February barred married same-sex couples from jointly fostering or adopting children, to the transition between ousted Director Charles Flanagan and his successor, Greg McKay.

Former DCS Director Charles Flanagan told our reporter today that the department implemented a policy under his watch that barred married same-sex couples from jointly adopting or fostering children under the state’s care after Brnovich advised the agency to do so.

The Department of Child Safety and the Governor’s Office may have broken state and federal privacy laws that shield abused children when the agency shared files to expose flaws in the former director’s system for prioritizing cases.

The state Senate confirmed Greg McKay as the new director of the Department of Child Safety despite objections from some legislators who say they lacked all the necessary information to vet Gov. Doug Ducey’s appointee.

Fired Department of Child Safety director Charles Flanagan defended himself against allegations his process of getting through a backlog of cases was dangerous to abused children, and said he’s speaking out for the first time since his firing to defend the record of his administration and DCS employees who have been smeared by recent news reports based on allegations from Greg McKay, the newly appointed director of the agency.

Vowing to take the recently created Department of Child Safety in a new direction, Gov. Doug Ducey ousted Director Charles Flanagan after less than a year on the job and replaced him with Greg McKay, the investigator whose revelation of thousands of uninvestigated cases at Child Protective Services ultimately led to the agency’s creation.